The present invention relates to closure of openings in enclosures subject to underwater exposure during travel, such as those on board Naval sea vessels.
A sea vessel enclosure has its opening closed in a watertight manner by a door panel hingedly mounted on the enclosure wall adjacent to the opening to form an opening closure door pivotally displaced to a closure position. Heretofore, such opening closures arrangements underwent excessive wear requiring frequent and costly repair and replacement of parts to perform closure operation. In accordance with the present invention, a plurality of closure holding devices are pivotally mounted on the enclosure wall by a frame in surrounding relation to the opening. Each of such closure holding devices has a wear pad through which watertight sealage of the opening is effected through a door panel, when the closure holding device is pivotally displaced to its closure position overlapping the door panel and selectively tightened in such closure position for pressurized contact of the wear pad with a sealing surface wedge element welded to the door panel. The wear pad projects from its closure holding device in spaced relation to a spindle projecting from the closure holding device into the enclosure wall through the frame on which the closure holding device is thereby pivotally supported under a spring bias.